Good alternative market? Singaporean money steadily flowing into Chiang Mai….

Good alternative market? Singaporean money steadily flowing into Chiang Mai….

With the Singapore property market in disarray and local equities slumping in line with regional and world stocks, where does smart investment money head for?

Well, for the last 2 or 3 years, a variety of companies and individual investors from Singapore have been looking at the Chiang Mai property market; researching; checking if the demand factors are genuine, seeing if the market can retain its growth; verifying that the attractive yields on offer can be sustained. Investors trying to make sure that they are “ahead of the curve” when it comes to making investments into hard assets such as property.

Despite a short slowdown in interest from Singapore investors in the Chiang Mai market earlier this year, the last 3-4 months have seen a number of new enquiries, exploratory visits and, indeed, some commitments into both the residential and commercial sectors.

As a place to be, Chiang Mai continues to attract good press both in terms of liveability for locals and foreign retirees but also from business people. With international standard schools, hospitals and shopping centres, the city lives up to its billing of the “great little city with everything”.

But on the investment side, as Simon Bradshaw of Perfect Homes says, “With yields on typical residential property in Chiang Mai at somewhere around 7% per annum net, it’s no surprise that Singapore investors are active, as this sort of figure represents almost double the yield which can be obtained in the Lion City.”

In fact, with Singaporean developers also active in the province, it may well be that more major investment from one of the many Singapore Government Linked Companies (“GLC’s”) won’t be far behind, given the huge diversity in investments undertaken by such GLC’s in the rest of Asia and elsewhere.

All in all, this new wave of investment can only be a positive for Chiang Mai as Singaporean developers will bring with them better quality in finishes and, perhaps, more creativity in the products on offer.

“Singaporean money will also demand more creativity in marketing and sales techniques, as well as helping to improve the overall standards and after sales services to purchasers or tenants and on-going property management”, Simon added.

Perfect Homes with its many years of experience in the city and its regional and international links is ideally placed to assist both local and international clients with their investment or other requirements.